Bhagavad Gita · 7.21 · Self-Knowledge and Enlightenment·21 of 30
यो यो यां यां तनुं भक्तः श्रद्धयार्चितुमिच्छति।तस्य तस्याचलां श्रद्धां तामेव विदधाम्यहम् ॥
yo yo yāṁ yāṁ tanuṁ bhaktaḥ śhraddhayārchitum
ichchhati tasya tasyāchalāṁ śhraddhāṁ tām eva vidadhāmyaham
Sanskrit recitation
What you worship shapes you · 7.20–7.30 · Teaching
Translation
Whatever form any devotee desires to worship with faith, I make that same faith of his firm and unflinching.
Meaning
Tanu or body is used here in the sense of a Devata (god).The Lord, the indweller of all beings, makes the faith of that devotee who worships the lesser divinities, which is born of the Samskaras of his previous birth, steady and unswerving. (Cf.IV.11IX.22and23)
After Swami Sivananda
What you worship shapes you· 7.20–7.30→
Teachers usually read this idea across several verses together, one shared reflection covers the whole unit.
- 7.20Those whose wisdom has been taken away by this or that desire, go to other gods, following this or that rite, led by their own nature.
7.21Whatever form any devotee desires to worship with faith, I make that same faith of his firm and unflinching.
- 7.22Endowed with that faith, he engages in the worship of that form and obtains his desired outcome, which is ordained by Me alone.
- 7.23Verily, the reward (fruit) that accrues to those men of small intelligence is finite. The worshippers of the gods go to them, whereas My devotees come to Me.
- 7.24The foolish think of Me, the Unmanifest, as having manifestation, not knowing My higher, immutable, and most excellent nature.
- 7.25I am not manifest to all, veiled as I am by the Yoga-Maya. This deluded world does not know Me, who am unborn and imperishable.
- 7.26I know, O Arjuna, the beings of the past, the present, and the future; however, no one knows Me.
- 7.27O Bharata, all beings are subject to delusion at birth due to the delusion of the pairs of opposites arising from desire and aversion, O Parantapa.
- 7.28But those men of virtuous deeds, whose sins have come to an end and who are freed from the delusion of the pairs of opposites, worship Me steadfastly, with their vows.
- 7.29Those who strive for liberation from old age and death, taking refuge in Me, realize in full that Brahman, the whole knowledge of the Self, and all action.
- 7.30Those who know Me with the Adhibhuta (pertaining to the elements), Adhidaiva (pertaining to the gods), and the Adhiyajna (pertaining to the sacrifice) know Me even at the time of death, remaining steadfast in mind.
Word-by-word→
- eva
- certainly
- aham
- I
- tām
- in that
- tanum
- form
- achalām
- steady
- architum
- to worship
- bhaktaḥ
- devotee
- ichchhati
- desires
- yām yām
- whichever
- vidadhāmi
- bestow
- tasya tasya
- to him
- yaḥ yaḥ
- whoever
- śhraddhām
- faith
- śhraddhayā
- with faith
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